The Holy Spirit Works All the Time You are Preparing

I received a letter recently with this statement in it:

"You are working hard on preparing your lessons, so it is completely nailed down beforehand. This doesn't let the Holy Spirit work! You should instead just go into your class open to what the Spirit leads you to say. That's the right way to teach."

I had several points in my reply:

"This is taking a small view of how the Holy Spirit works. I believe that He is at work throughout all the preparation time, directing and shaping the content of the lesson, the questions I will use to get conversation going, and the life application. There is no doubt that we need to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit during class time -- and I coach teachers on that. But to suggest that teachers should not be seriously investing themselves into the material, prayerfully going over and over it, is to give less honor to the Lord, not more. God can and does steer teachers in the right paths."